With the advent of lightweight, low-power mass storage media and efficient, high-resolution display technology, electronic books are becoming increasingly viable and popular. By “electronic,” it is meant a portable device having a display and means for storing at least the text of a book so that a user can refer to this device and alter the display to effect page turning, and other operations. In addition to a textual or graphical display, future units also will include the ability to read the book to a user, if so desired, thereby providing a more modern version of a “book on tape.”
In terms of the ways in which the reading material is loaded into the book, various techniques have been proposed. On the one hand, electronic book material may be provided in the form of an optical medium such as a compact disc or semiconductor memory module. Alternatively, such material may be downloaded from a website over the internet and stored in part, or in whole, temporarily or permanently.